It would be funny if Nintendo didn't bother with the WiiU in 2012 and MS jumped the gun. I wonder how easy it is for companies to predict each others launches.

I still more on the side of Halo 4 launching on 360 and the next Xbox. It's not like games haven't done that sort of thing before and I think the new Halo trilogy should really have a foot in next gen. Whether that makes it half baked I dunno, depends how they approach it, different levels or just more shiny.

It would nice to see GTA V turned up to 11 on the console platform. Maybe a few others get the same treatment at the end of 2012.

Consoles probably being a decent upgrade in a nice form factor for a reasonable price with headline titles like GTA V, Halo 4, COD on launch. Tempting for some.

Could also not happen and we see the WiiU only while PS3 and 360 sell fine for another year with maybe one last hurrah.

DDevil wrote:
Also, I don't give a fuck about games coming on multiple disks. I played Monkey Island 2 on the Amiga!

I played Ultima VI on the Amiga. You had to swap discs every single time you started a conversation with a NPC as the dialogue was all on one disk, while the map was on another. This was on a 2 drive system as well - the game itself was on a third.

I doubt Naughty Dog are doing anything current gen other than Vita now.

We don't know when they planned to release their new consoles. For all we know 2012 was the date all along for MS. It's likely them and Sony knew Nintendo would be first out the gates as the Wii was so dated to begin with. Not hard to imagine their plans coinciding with Nintendo's next release.

Maybe i've been under a shell for the past few months, but i've been reading rumours about EA and Valve trying to get Origin and Steam on the Wii U. I knew Nintendo were opening up to third parties about how to go about delivering online services, but I didn't think it would have anything to do with marketplaces. It would really shake up 3rd party support, once and for all.

Speaking to IndustryGamers in an upcoming "Pachter's Podium" column, the analyst told us that launching an Xbox 360 successor by the end of 2012 doesn't make much sense for Microsoft. Instead, he's fairly confident that Microsoft is actually getting set to release an updated version of the Xbox 360.

"Those rumors are silly. Microsoft is still selling a ton of Xbox 360s, and they won't replace the existing one until sales begin to slow. I think the rumors are based upon leaks about modifying the current Xbox 360 to allow it to operate Windows 8," Pachter commented. "I fully expect a new model of Xbox 360 by holiday 2012, but don't think we see a new console altogether from Microsoft until 2014."

Speaking to IndustryGamers in an upcoming "Pachter's Podium" column, the analyst told us that launching an Xbox 360 successor by the end of 2012 doesn't make much sense for Microsoft. Instead, he's fairly confident that Microsoft is actually getting set to release an updated version of the Xbox 360.

"Those rumors are silly. Microsoft is still selling a ton of Xbox 360s, and they won't replace the existing one until sales begin to slow. I think the rumors are based upon leaks about modifying the current Xbox 360 to allow it to operate Windows 8," Pachter commented. "I fully expect a new model of Xbox 360 by holiday 2012, but don't think we see a new console altogether from Microsoft until 2014."

They pay this man, christ.

He does bring up an interesting discussion point though : Will Microsofts new console simply be a new 360, maybe with more RAM and other performance upgrades?

I don't see how he's wrong. 360s are selling very well. PS3s are doing Ok too. Only Nintendo really needs to get a new console out, as the Wii is tired and people for whom the Wii was a first console are moving 'up' to 360/PS3. They've yet to make the most of Kinect & Move too.

1080p look like it'll be the standard for another generation. Price will also be a bigger factor than at any other generation of console.

All the consoles this gen are the same basic design - certainly much closer than they've ever been before. Same CPU architecture, similar arrangement of SIMDs (except for the Wii, if I remember rightly). What we know of the Wii U and new xbox so far indicates they'll be more of the same, so yes, in many ways I suspect you could class them as just upgraded versions of the old consoles.

I've just read an interview with Michael Ancel and he describes the things he wants to do next gen with BG@E 2, based on what he said they are going to be very powerful machines. Interview is at Metro.co.uk.

Bremenacht wrote:
I don't see how he's wrong. 360s are selling very well. PS3s are doing Ok too. Only Nintendo really needs to get a new console out, as the Wii is tired and people for whom the Wii was a first console are moving 'up' to 360/PS3. They've yet to make the most of Kinect & Move too.

1080p look like it'll be the standard for another generation. Price will also be a bigger factor than at any other generation of console.

The Wii's current situation shows the problem with actually waiting until sales drop significantly before you announce a successor console - itīs a bit of a gamble, because the exact timing of the dropoff is hard to estimate.

Weīll see which path MS takes, but I wouldnīt be surprised if the CES announcement rumors come true.

Itīs important to remember that both MS and Sony will keep the 360 and PS3 in stores for a long time to come - the PS2 sold tens of millions after the PS3 launched. Especially with Kinect, Move, etc. it will be useful for them to have a bargain-basement entry level console that everyone can afford. The 720 and PS4 donīt mean the death of the 360 and PS3...

EDIT: "Running Windows 8" - I mean, they have Metro coming in the next dashboard update, and I doubt they would actually fork the 360 hardware at this point in the cycle.

Nope. Rumour would be something like: a factory in South Korea is rumoured to be manufacturing chips for a new Xbox, or; Sony are believed to be hiring extra staff for next gen development - i.e. actual information, but without knowing if they're definitely true, they're just rumour. If you had loads of that kind of thing happening, then even without knowing any of it's necessarily true, one might decide that the sheer weight of it means it's unlikely it's all wrong; i.e. no smoke without fire.

Speculation is people theorising on what they think may happen - but not on the basis of any information, reliable or otherwise. There's no smoke, there's just people discussing the concept of fire because there will be a fire at some point in the future, and it's been a while since we had a fire, so the next fire is probably nearer than the last one. They haven't actually seen any smoke to suggest the fire is happening now though.